INDONESIAN president Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has promised to quadruple the tourism war chest for next year, with funds likely to go towards expanded international promotions and the development of special economic areas for tourism later on.
At a closed-door meeting with tourism minister Arief Yahya and tourism stakeholders in his office yesterday, Jokowi added that he also expects the tourism ministry to introduce more groundbreaking initiatives for the sector.
Should Jokowi make good his promise, Indonesia’s tourism budget for 2016 should stand at Rp4 trillion (US$300 million), up from this year’s Rp1.3 trillion.
This year’s budget was also a four-fold of 2014’s Rp300 billion.
Minister for tourism Arief Yahya commented: “The increment will be mostly used to pump up both domestic and international tourism marketing. Promotions are very important in increasing both international and domestic tourist movements, and we are weak in this area. The president stressed the need for promotion, promotion and promotion in the meeting.”
In the short term, Indonesia will focus on cross-border promotions in the region as a quick-win strategy.
“Take Singapore for example. There are 1.7 million expatriates living there and around eight million non-ASEAN tourists to Singapore. Many of them now do not need visa to go to Kepri (in the Riau islands) with the new visa policy,” he said, adding that more would be done to attract this potential market.
The mid- and long-term strategy include developing special economic areas for tourism.
Arief said: “Currently, we have four areas in mind: Tanjung Lesung (Banten), Mandalika Resort Lombok, Morotai in North Maluku and Sei Mangkei in North Sumatra. However, there are 222 tourism areas around the country to develop so we will have to work in stages.”
